The 16 square puzzle using the fine painting by American artist Martin J. Heade. When the puzzle is complete, you will jump to a 25 square puzzle with the same image. You can go there directly by clicking the red square.

The 25 square puzzle using the fine painting by American artist Martin J. Heade. When the puzzle is complete, you will jump to a 36 square puzzle with the same image. You can go there directly by clicking the red square.

The 36 square puzzle using the fine painting by American artist Martin J. Heade. When the puzzle is complete, you will jump to a 49 square puzzle with the same image. You can go there directly by clicking the red square.

The 49 square puzzle using using the fine painting by American artist Martin J. Heade. When the puzzle is complete, you will jump to a 64 square puzzle with the same image. You can go there directly by clicking the red square.

The 64 square puzzle using using the fine painting by American artist Martin J. Heade. This puzzle is getting harder yet with such a large image a puzzle with even more pieces would surely work well. Congratulations if you succeed. The applet permits up to a ten square puzzle. If there is any interest in my listing a puzzle of greater difficulty, drop me a line and I'll add it in. Information about the artist and the subject can be found below.

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The image is of a painting by American artist Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) entitled "Cattleya Orchid and Three Brazilian Hummingbirds" painted in 1871. You may see the original image as I found it on Carol Gerten's wonderful site (CGFA) here (Japan) or here (U.S.A.). Another splendid image of the painting (part of the permanent collection in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.) can be seen here. More of Heade's artwork can be seen on the Internet here and here.

Martin Johnson Heade was born in Lumberville, on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, on August 11, 1819, the eldest son of Joseph C. Heed, farmer and lumber mill owner. He never trained formally as an artist but was guided and influenced by local preacher and artist Edward Hicks. Around 1840, he travelled to England and the Continent, and spent two years in Rome, Italy. By 1843, he was back in the United States but seemed thereafter to be constantly on the move, living in many cities in the eastern U.S. as far west as Chicago. He changed his name to Heade in 1843. He travelled internationally. In 1859 through 1863, living in New York and then Boston, he developed his personal style of landscape painting for which he is now honoured. Heade had a life-long fascination with hummingbirds and in 1863/4 travelled to Brazil, with the intention of illustrating a book on South American hummingbirds to be entitled "Gems of Brazil" and to be published in Britain (never in fact published). He made three trips in all to South and Central America - to Brazil, Nicaragua, Columbia and Panama. Hummingbirds in tropical settings continued as a staple subject in his paintings for the remainder of his life. In 1883, at the age of 64, Heade married and moved to St. Augustine, Florida, where he died on September 4, 1904.

While Heade exhibited widely, he achieved at best only moderate recognition. Little written documentation exists about him, and he left no identifiable body of writing. He was virtually forgotten until his work was rediscovered in the 1940s. He is today recognised as a major American artist and his art is praised for its sheer beauty, and its use of light, atmosphere and mood. I was interested to see here that two Heade paintings, part of the estate of Tucson resident Martha Nelson who died in 1996 at age 94, were sold for U.S. $88! Carl Rice bought them and later sold them through Christie's for U.S. $1,072,000! Wow! He was sued (on the basis that he was an art expert, knew the items were worth a substantial sum and concealed that fact from the seller) but the suit failed. In early 1999, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston paid U.S. $1.25 million for a Heade painting of magnolias arrayed on a velvet ground. For years the painting had been used to cover a hole in the wall of a house in Indiana! (I would like to be able to show you the painting, but cannot, alas). The record price at auction for a Heade painting would seem to be U.S. $1,650,000 ("The Great Florida Sunset" on May 25, 1988). But also see bottom of page!

The painting we display on this page is oil on wood and is 13 3/4 x 18 inches in size. In the bottom right is, I learn, a "Sappho Comet" hummingbird, green with a yellow throat and brilliant red tail feathers. The other two birds are green-and-pink "Brazilian Amethysts". A needlework pattern of the design is available here. A Lake Applet version of the painting is available here and here.

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The java applet that runs the puzzle is courtesy of Axel Fontaine, who lives just south of the city of Brussels in Belgium. Axel invited free use of his fine applet which you can, I hope, download here. Axel, we thank you!

PS (April 2001) On this page I learned of a very beautiful Heade painting that sold at auction (Sotheby's May 27, 1999) for US $937,500. The work is entitled "Two Orchids in a Mountain Landscape" painted 1870-2, and 17" x 23" in size. The birds are "male and female gorgeted woodstar hummingbirds", Columbia natives, I understand. The orchids are cattleya orchids. Here is the painting. Isn't it a beautiful work!